Women Athletes Pros And Cons

Kelsie Dodd

September 12, 2017

Women Athletes as Falsely Accused Deviants The article, written by Elain M. Blinde and Diane E. Taub, discusses the labeling of women athletes as “lesbians” and how women athletes go about dealing with this labeling. The article in the very beginning states that “the behavior of women athletes is often interpreted to violate gender norms…” (Blinde and Taub 1992) Blinde and Taub explore how women athletes manage with the label “lesbian” and look into the “devaluation and stigmatization impact” (Blinde and Taub 1992) on women. Gender is a powerful normative system which controls most behaviors of women and men and the system defines what is perceived as “masculine” and “feminine.” Women tend to have a defined line

Although all women experience some sort of devaluation and stigmatization, some women tend to part take in roles that make them easier to being labeled a deviant; women athletes are among these kinds of women. Most cultures seem to associate sports and athleticism with masculinity, and women who play a role in sports tend to be viewed as unladylike or masculine. The press and research literature have decided that athletics and feminity are incompatible, and with the idea that sports and masculinity go hand in hand, has linked women athletes as lesbians; the label showing an act that isn’t considered to be the gendered norm. In order to gather more data, Blinde was able to reach out to some varsity women athletes and was able to interview them as a method to receive the data she would need. When asked questions with positive and negative connotations associated with women’s sports and female athletes, and stereotypes associated with women athletes (Blinde and Taub 1992), the women being interviewed would engage in discussion. The interviewers then began asking questions to explore how these women dealt with being labeled a lesbian.

This as two different types within it: the first being that since female gender norms emphasize on the frailty, weakness and dependency of women, the position of power may be strengthened when engaging in sport. Secondly, the label of “lesbian” may be used to discredit or detract from an accomplishment from women who participate in sports. Legitimatized error are ideas that people feel are valid but are not actually. Victim-based error-type is a person that is receiving the label (of lesbian) and is actively and willingly looking for that label. Some women athletes believe that some other women are asking for the label. To add on to that, there are a few underlying factors that increase false accusations: first, women’s sport is ever growing and challenging male-controlled sport structures; secondly, women, as a group, have relatively little power and are easily susceptible to false accusations and hold an outsider status; and thirdly, they are stereotyped because they aren’t doing gender correctly, or according to society’s ideals. In order to manage the “lesbian” label, women athletes approach it in different ways. One way they approach the stigma is concealment, which is an information management technique that helps prevent association with the label